4) Making advances toward obtaining professional licensing in my career

5) Being a more conscientious friend to my friends

6) Publishing a few more poems

7) Playing the bassoon again

8) Practicing gratitude

I’m sure there are others, but after a few nourishing days of being away from the familiar, comforting, but mildly numbing daily routines that make up 90 percent of my year, the above goals keep resurfacing in my brain.

It isn’t the weekend, nor an official holiday, but it’s my own holiday!

For one of the few times since I moved to Hawaii more than three years ago, I’m taking a day off for me: no child staying home from school, no cable installation where I need to be present, no bad cold I’m getting over, no forms I have to fill out by the end of the week!

I’m heading into the homestretch of the last two months of the fiscal year at work with goals to meet, I’m wrapping up a German elective with six wonderful students, I have a few reports to write as treasurer for the Honolulu Quakers and Fulbright Association, but I’m going to relax about those — at least for today!

I may work out at the Y or not, I may catch up on my reading, I may, to my husband’s dismay, continue to declutter our home! (I’ve been cleaning for an hour and it feels great!) I will call a best friend with whom I haven’t spoken in a month. She is in a different time zone and that works out just fine!

It’s one of the few times in recent memory I feel this relaxed about not having a specific plan! I’m grateful to have this kind of day once in a while. I haven’t even changed out of my pajamas yet! I might leave them on and not shave!

Thank you, Dear Readers, for taking in the intensity of my posts for the last two days. On this Wednesday, though, my hope is that you will let yourself feel a lightness I am enjoying more than I expected! See you tomorrow.

I invited a friend to my blog today. Sherry is one of the kindest people I have ever met, a terrific writer, a true development professional, and an amazing mother. I’ve worked with Sherry for two years writing grants to support a small, independent school. She makes the intricacies of foundation requirements easy to process, the subtleties of a grant application fun to work through. We’ve had many long conversations in our work together, and we have become friends.

Today Sherry told me Ellen is an inspiration for a book she is considering writing, the theme of which would be children accepting differences and recognizing what they have in common. Sherry noted that Ellen came to mind because her parents are two dads.

I will admit, that yes, although I played hockey, I liked figure skating — big surprise for a gay man! When I really like a performance at the Olympics, I’ll listen to commentators from the United States and Germany. (I’m bilingual.) They usually have different takes on the highlights of the performance.

My chest was swelling a bit when Sherry was describing Ellen being an inspiration for children accepting differences. My mind immediately went to Ellen’s extra chromosome as the reason why other children would gain valuable lessons by including her in their lives. Sherry, though, talked about Ellen’s two fathers!

Isn’t it funny how the same topic, like the same figure skating performance, can be viewed in two entirely different ways? Sherry is right: there may well be children and parents who find Ellen’s home situation something new to take in, but I’m used to it!

It’s a scary time for the world in many ways, but I hope that what once was beyond the pale, like gay marriage, will more and more become the norm. I also will do whatever it takes so that folks like my daughter who have an extra chromosome are accepted into all reaches of life. I look forward to Sherry’s book and thank her for being inspired by Ellen.